Personal – On Halloween

I’m about to be a party pooper. Why? How? Because in about 3 seconds, I’ll admit that I’m not that into Halloween.

“WHAT?” You say, “BUT HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE IT ALL???”

The answer is that I’m a fraidy-cat. I don’t like being scared by the kids in the haunted maze. I’m not interested in scary decorations that make it look like skeletons are crawling out from your lawn. I don’t want to dress up like I’m a zombie. I’m just not interested.

But our neighborhood is kind of known for Halloween. People get SUPER into it. There was a big Halloween parade yesterday that closed off a large swath of the neighborhood and drew people in from miles around. It was one of the times I’ve been very glad we have a driveway. And there are a lot of houses that go full out. There’s one a few blocks away that has a dozen werewolves on its front lawn bathed in a spooky green light, along with a “graveyard”.

And you know what? I’m fine with other people being into Halloween – it’s just not me. But it’s hard when the Girls are really into it. I knew I would “have” to decorate the house – so I did, and I did it my way. It’s more graphic-art take on Halloween that’s about shapes and abstractions of Halloween stuff. I have my fall wreath to which I recently added some mini-pumpkins. We’ve got some bat cutouts in the windows, which are much more visible in the dark with the light on inside. I got some orange light bulbs for our lights, and they are super atmospheric and fun. I’m very proud of the doormat that I got – it’s the perfect amount of “scary” for my taste. And of course – glow-in-the-dark stretch spider webs. Because nothing says “Halloween” like lots of spiders. We’ve also got a larger black spider web that I bought at Target which goes on our big window above the door, but it’s too high to reach on the ladder we borrowed from my parents. The Girls have sort of complained that it isn’t enough, and I should add more and spookier things, but since it’s my house, and their mother likes to do the creepy decorations that I don’t, I’ll leave that to her.

As for dressing up – I probably will. I’ve got my renaissance faire dress, which I like to use because every time I wear it, it drops the “cost per use” down. The Boy will probably not dress up when we take the girls trick-or-treating – unless he borrows the devil accessories that I tacked on last minute when we went to look at the Halloween parade.

But if you’re not into spooks and scares like me, and you can’t justify buying candy – which, I’ll admit, is the best part about being in a neighborhood – then I would recommend the new mini-game that Google put on it’s homepage today. You play as a cat at wizard school who needs to defeat the dastardly ghosts who have taken over! I got partway through level 4 (and will probably play again later in the day). In any case, Happy Halloween to those who are excited, and we’re just that much closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas for those of us who like those holidays better. 🙂